FDA Taking Comments
This comes from a loyal Allergic Girl reader:
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is accepting written public comments on "May Contain" labeling. FDA has begun to develop a long-term strategy to help manufacturers use these statements in a clear and consistent manner, so that food-allergic consumers and their caregivers can be adequately informed as to the potential presence of major allergens.”
Here is the full FDA document.
Here is where to leave a comment on the FDA site.
Comments are due by 01/14/2009, TODAY.
Take action, let the FDA know how you feel about those “May Contain Labels”..
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is accepting written public comments on "May Contain" labeling. FDA has begun to develop a long-term strategy to help manufacturers use these statements in a clear and consistent manner, so that food-allergic consumers and their caregivers can be adequately informed as to the potential presence of major allergens.”
Here is the full FDA document.
Here is where to leave a comment on the FDA site.
Comments are due by 01/14/2009, TODAY.
Take action, let the FDA know how you feel about those “May Contain Labels”..
Comments
I found the following statistics on various websites -
AUSTRALIA: Australia has one of the highest allergic incidence rates in the developed world.
CANADA: Between 3% and 4% of Canadian adults, and nearly 6 % of children suffer from food allergies
GERMANY: The prevalence in children is 3 percent to 6 percent, but can be up to 30 percent in high-risk groups, such as children with eczema.
ITALY: An estimated 6 to 8% of the Italian population has food allergies.
JAPAN: about 7% of population had some form of food allergy.
MALAYSIA: about 30% of young children are likely to develop allergic disorders in the first five years of life.
SWEDEN: one out of 15 children with reported adverse reactions to food.
US: One in every 17 children under the age of 3 has food allergy.
And really serious food reactions are not all that rare - "A study in Arch Intern Med 2001 Jan 8;161(1):15-2, Anaphylaxis in the United States: an investigation into its epidemiology, concluded with “The occurrence of anaphylaxis in the US is not as rare as is generally believed. On the basis of our figures, the problem of anaphylaxis may, in fact, affect 1.21% (1.9 million) to 15.04% (40.9 million) of the US population.” PMID 11146694"
So is this epidemic of food allergies mostly among young children caused by being too clean (hygiene theory - food allergies are unknown in undeveloped countries) in the last 5 years or something else?
1960 - children received on average one or two vaccines
1980 - children received 8-9 vaccines
1990 - children were routinely given 10 vaccines
2000 - Children now receive 33 vaccinations before they enter school
2007 - Children are now to receive 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six and 53-56 doses of 15 or 16 vaccines by age 12.
Vaccines contain an adjuvant that increases the body's immune response to the protein in the vaccine. Something that the public and most physicians don't realize is that the adjuvant also contains a mixture of vegetable and animal oils that have a trace of food protein in them. This is a protected trade secret and does not have to appear on the package insert. The ingredients of many adjuvants can only be found by reading patents. What are these oils? Soy, sesame, peanut, wheat germ, corn, shellfish, fish, etc.
Can a trace amount of food protein in a vaccine cause food allergy? Yes. This has been known since 1839, when the French physiologist Francois Magendie injected animals to create a food allergy to egg whites.
The food industry has to label food that may contain trace amounts of peanuts or nuts but the pharmaceutical industry is exempt. Shouldn't your doctor know if he is injecting a peanut-allergic patient with peanut oil?